Like the uncool schoolchildren they undoubtedly were back in the day, a group of Conservative MPs have set up a club complete with homemade badges.
The badge features three bees, because the club’s name involves three words beginning with the letter B. See what they’ve done there?
Politely, it stands for the Berated By Bercow club. There is a more earthy version in which the first word is changed.
Membership relies on having received a tongue-lashing from Speaker John Bercow.
Some Tories feel he is particularly harsh on them. That could be the case or it could be the Tories are more unruly than the Opposition, and some on the Government benches are not used to being taken down a peg or two.
In truth, most intelligent MPs on both sides are fans of Bercow the Speaker if not Bercow the man.
He has given back to backbenchers a degree of power and influence unknown under New Labour. He is more likely to indulge requests to summon ministers to the House and, once there, he makes sure there is time for everyone to have their say.
Though there are some people he clearly doesn’t get on with.
Energy minister Simon Burns, a distant cousin of David Bowie, has had a number of run-ins with Bercow. Burns is no Rebel, Rebel, but he may well be hoping for some Changes in the Speaker’s chair sometime soon.
On Friday another member of the Three Bees Club was at the Despatch Box. Anna Soubry, an ex-journalist who gives the impression of being more Lois Lane the spunky one from the comics and original films rather than the airheads portrayed in recent Superman adaptations than Bridget Jones.
She started to complain of a Labour MP “chuntering”, which she said was “not very helpful” before realising she’d just hurled a rather large boulder from within her glass house and adding a sheepish “as I know”.
A coquettish wiggle of her eyebrows at Bercow just about got her off the hook.
On Wednesday The Three Bees Club bagged a new member when the Speaker picked out Michael Ellis for special treatment at Prime Minister’s Questions, exhorting him to “get a grip”.
In truth it’s hard to know how Bercow alighted on any single person to slap down for it was one of the noisiest sessions in a very long time.
Unfortunately for William Hague it wasn’t so noisy that he couldn’t be heard calling Labour’s Cathy Jamieson a “stupid woman” in response to her question about dodgy donations.
No matter how many women David Cameron promotes in the mooted reshuffle this week, the suspicion will remain that this Government has a problem with women. Not helped by the PM referring to Andy Murray as “the first British player to win Wimbledon for 77 years”.
Ed Miliband quickly volleyed back that Virginia Wade had won in 1977 15-love to the leader of the Opposition.
From then on their exchange was less like a tennis match and more like a bare-knuckle boxing bout.
The two men arguing over whose party funding was dirtier made for an unedifying spectacle.
And the next day when IPSA, the body responsible for MPs pay, recommended a rise of nearly 10% it was even harder to justify in light of the racket and the rabble that had gone on before.
Bear in mind, though, that the proposals for an £8,000 rise to a salary of around £74,000 are just that at this stage.
They are out for consultation, which means anyone who doesn’t like them can get in touch with IPSA to share their distaste in an effort to get the organisation to change its mind.
In the unlikely event there’s anyone out there who doesn’t think an MP is worth £74,000 a year, the address is parliamentarystandards.org.uk
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